A six-decade-old tax break intended to help struggling farmers in the Garden State has long been a target of critics who say it’s been co-opted by wealthy suburban landowners. Now, there’s a push to tighten its loopholes.
New Jersey lawmakers approved the Farmland Assessment Act of 1964 to help farms that were being squeezed out of business as demand for suburban housing drove up land values — and the taxes that went with them.
Today, about 35,000 landowners enroll some part of their properties in the program, which can discount a real estate tax bill by up to 98%.
Complaints about alleged abuses have been around almost as long as the program itself. In her 1993 race for governor, Christine Whitman faced criticism for farm assessments on two family properties in Central Jersey, though she won the election anyway. More recently, NJ Transit CEO Kevin Corbett took flak in 2019 for claiming a tax break based on a flock of sheep kept at his Mendham Township home.
Honey for sale outside a property in Bernardsville that gets a farmland assessment tax break. State law requires owners to sell $1,000 a year of agricultural products to claim the break, but reporting is on the honor system.
The state revised the law in 2013, requiring more farming revenue to qualify and more training for local tax assessors.
But critics say the changes haven’t gone nearly far enough, and a review this summer by The Record and Northersey.com of just who receives farmland assessments reveals that the breaks are still used by many wealthy landowners living on luxury suburban estates that seem to have little to do with commercial agriculture.
“The size of that program is a red flag,” said state Sen. Joe Pennacchio, a Morris County Republican who is pushing for a commission to reevaluate the program.
“I’m not against it,” he said. “But what I don’t want is people gaming the system, forcing other people to pay more tax, which is what is driving people out of this state.”
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Getting a farmland tax assessment in NJ is easy
Obtaining a farmland assessment is simple in New Jersey — if you own enough land. Property owners must fill out an annual form attesting they have set aside 5 acres or more for agricultural purposes and that they expect to make at least $1,000 from that activity. (Taxes are reduced only on the agricultural portion of a parcel; homes and other non-farming uses are taxed at the normal rate in town.)
Agricultural activity can range from growing crops to raising chickens, sheep or goats, as well as horse farming and beekeeping. With New Jersey seeking to preserve open space, the program is also open to acres that qualify as pasture, wetlands or woodlands.
When the act passed in 1964, the state required that farmers produce at least $500 a year in revenue to qualify, whether through sales of produce, firewood or other products or the value of livestock kept on site. That minimum would equate to about $5,000 in today’s dollars, but when legislators raised the threshold in 2013, it was only increased to $1,000.
The revisions also allowed owners to claim the break for new kinds of farms: biomass, solar or wind energy generation now qualify.
The yearly applications are processed by municipal tax assessors who may or may not seek supporting documentation. In interviews, some assessors said receipts are rarely required. In most cases, the applicant merely attests to the anticipated income.
Pennacchio proposed his commission after meeting with Mendham Township resident Jack Curtis, who has spent years compiling data on farmland assessments awarded in and around his Morris County town, where the median home value in 2022 was $1.05 million, according to the U.S. Census.
In Mendham Township ‘this law has morphed into a scam’
Curtis, a former high school principal in Roxbury, seethes over the imbalances in town. While he pays more than $9,600 in annual property taxes on the undeveloped portion of his 2½-acre lot, some of his neighbors pay only a few hundred dollars on significant portions of their multi-acre estates thanks to farm assessments.
“This law has morphed into a scam that wealthy people, with large tracts of land, have adopted as their own personal tax-reduction scheme,” Curtis said.
Through Open Public Records Act requests, Curtis confirmed 155 farmland-assessed properties in 2024 for Mendham Township, which has a population of 6,000. Combined, those properties included 1,600 qualified acres, on which owners paid $11,000 in property tax. Curtis estimates they would have owed an additional $1.1 million if not for the farmland designations.
“No one is doing me a favor while I pay $4,683.32 per acre in tax, while these 155 entitled folks are paying $6.88 per acre,” he said.
“What they are actually doing is transferring their tax bill to the 2,126 non-assessed property owners in town,” Curtis added, citing data from 2021. “It has to be understood: This is a tax transfer, not a tax break.”
Morris County is a Ground Zero for what Curtis sees as abuse of the farmland assessment privilege. The county currently has about 1,500 qualified properties that claim to be farming in 28 of its 39 towns.
Mayor defends the farmland assessment program
Mendham Township Mayor Sarah Neibart defended the residents receiving those tax breaks. Farming has been a major activity in the township since its settlement in the early 18th century, she said.
“Mendham Township is a residential community with a traditional character based upon its rural and historic past and high-quality natural resources, especially our extensive woodlands and pristine streams,” Neibart said.
That history includes 20 agricultural parcels identified in Mendham Township in 1964 when the farmland assessment law was passed. Sixty years later, the 155 designated properties in town represent a 775% increase.
The mayor is also a beneficiary of the program. She lives on a 65-acre estate complex owned by a limited liability company affiliated with her father-in-law, Sol Barer, the former CEO and current board chairman of the pharmaceutical company Celgene Corp. The land is enrolled in the farmland program.
Mendham Township residents are hardly alone in the practice. Other towns in and around the affluent Somerset Hills region have even more farm-assessed parcels, including Harding, with 177 qualified properties; Chester Township, with 166; and Washington Township, with 304.
Trump National Golf Club houses goats, saves an estimated $257K in taxes
Crossing south into Somerset and County, properties that have benefited from farm assessment include tracts owned by Whitman, the former governor; Johnson & Johnson heir and New York Jets owner Woody Johnson; and family members of the Forbes publishing empire.
In Bedminster, former President Donald Trump enjoys a farm tax break for a portion of his Trump National Golf Club.
Trump National’s 2024 FA-1 farm assessment application, obtained from the Bedminster tax assessor, lists 320 acres taxed as standard commercial property, including its golf courses. It also includes 183 acres that are treated as farmland: 113 acres on which the club says it grows hay and another 70 counted as protected woodlands or wetlands, according to the form.
Trump National — referred to on the application as the Lamington Farm Club LLC — also claims a herd of 12 goats as part of its agricultural operations.
The first page of a farmland assessment form filed by Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, aka the Lamington Farm Club LLC. The club gets a hefty tax break for harvesting hay and keeping a herd of goats on part of its property.
The club’s 2024 property tax bill comes to $450,000 for its 320 conventionally taxed acres — a rate of $1,406 per acre — and $1,168 for its farmland, or just $6.38 an acre.
That’s a saving of almost $257,000, Curtis calculates. “Donald Trump charges a $350,000 membership fee to anyone who wants to join his club,” he said. “I hardly believe that Mr. Trump needs a 98% tax reduction when one new membership would more than pay for the taxes he is avoiding.”
The club didn’t return messages seeking comment.
